‘Next time we’ll go to the north and gamble instead!’

A DEFENCE lawyer yesterday asked a Nicosia court to show leniency to his clients, caught by police gambling with dice, arguing that millions of pounds were lost in casinos and cabarets in the north.

During the trial, two men had pleaded guilty to charges of illegal gambling using dice in a coffee shop in the old town of Nicosia. Police had raided the coffee shop and rounded up 12 men huddled around a craps table throwing dice. The other 10 men are facing similar charges in separate trials. Police also seized around £308 from a table, believed to have been the gambling money.

Pleading before Judge Angelos David, the defence lawyer said: “Your honour, the men were caught playing with dice in an old coffee shop close to Ledra Street. The police saw it fit to raid the coffee shop, where some men go to in the early hours after leaving the bars and clubs in the area, and arrest them, while so many people go to the occupied areas and gamble every day.

He added: “Only yesterday I watched a programme on television which said that Greek Cypriots spent £25 million in the north on gambling and women in 2003, while that number rose to £40 million in 2004.”

“That makes no difference: the law is the law,” the judge replied.

“But I found out that some of the people who were arrested during the raid told the police ‘fine arrest us because next time we will just go and gamble in the north instead’,” the lawyer retorted.

“Fine, let them go if they want to,” the judge replied, unmoved.

The lawyer insisted that although he didn’t condone their crime, there were much bigger gambling problems across the divide.

Unfazed, Judge David ruled that the two men pay £216 and £316 respectively for their crimes, adding that “gambling was a problem of society which has led to the downfall of many families on the island.”